Always, The Road... The Mutants probably see it as a vein, or an artery, granting it a mystical, ritual significance, mumbling mantras in their festering contamination-riddled huts, worshiping it, praying to it's 'spirit' for protection and aid. For the Betrayers, it is more likely a legacy, a sentimental symbol of a carefree and decadent past, of a time before the contamination and the atomic fires, a time when it was perhaps permissible to be weak, and soft. I see it quite differently. For me, it is a conduit, a
system, an efficient network of expediency, allowing me to move swiftly to where I am required, and allowing me to exercise my will, for the greater achievement of the Pax Bionicus, and the Biomek Order.
The Road is such a cluttered and untidy place, snaking it's hundreds of miles across the continent, but it is a good first step. The rest of Scrap Valley is a disorderly and chaotic place - burning ashfields to the south, dirty snowfields to the north,seething pools of contamination liberally scattered throughout, and everywhere, the mouldering ruins of scavenger towns, infested with the human cattle that scrabble and fight in the remaining vestiges of the Old World. Pikes, Scavs, Derelicts - these beings of meat alone, these animals, try to mimic us. They attempt organisation, in tribes and clans, and despite their base, unenhanced, natures, even manage to restore and maintain crude vehicles and weapons, with which they patrol their pitiful domains, infighting and squandering the resources of the valley, which rightful belong to us. I do my best to see that these transgressions do not go unpunished, and the most efficient manner of reclaiming our due tithes, is the most simple. I destroy any who cross my path, or who dare to challenge my progress. I also take due care and diligence in ensuring that their remains are properly salvaged and returned to Fort Logan, of course.
Such initiative is welcome, but as a Mastermind of the Order, I also have duties. Throughout the valley, at strategically important positions, the Order maintains heavily defended bastions, and it is from these that I work, either for the various command Meks stationed in these places, or for the General direct, via the network of doctrine terminals we use to maintain efficient cohesion, also located at these robust rest stops.
I am heading to one now, in fact, thundering along the surprisingly durable Road, one of the few useful things the Betrayers ever gave this world - in addition to Biomeks, of course. The Road dips into a broad valley, and I can make out the bastion at the top of the far rise. The valley is not empty however, and at the very bottom, I can make out fighting. Optical enhancement reveals fierce gunfire and explosions, and the familiar rounded grey vehicles that the Pikes travel about in, in their poor mockery of a civilised species. Crawlers scuttle into the fray from a nearby contamination hotspot, jumping and slashing with mindless aggression, but it is not these mutated insects that attract my interest. No...something new, something different is fighting down in the dip.
Two types are identified, both sleek, black, and adorned with baleful red lights. One a bipedal robotic form, and the other appears to be some kind of advanced design of light battle tank, and both are doing an efficient job of decimating the hapless Pikes, and the Crawlers with some form of energy weaponry. Very advanced, all things considered. A moment's cross-reference and query, and I know these new entities - Tempernet. Forces under the direct command, or rather
limbs, of the enigmatic and universally hostile AI network.
Just as we were designed to fight the Betrayers' war against the Mutants on the front lines, Tempernet was created to be responsible for policing the internal troubles of the Betrayers during those days of folly. And just like us, it was betrayed too, and did not take kindly to such treatment either. It now thinks only of itself, and it's own expansion. Alas, this makes it incompatible with the Pax Bionicus, and our orders regarding the insane and defective AI, are clear.
I smile beneath my respiratory augmentations. The Road has provided a new opportunity to test myself, to analyse, learn and increase my efficiency at what I do best. There is a 89.34% probability that the tasks required of me at the bastion ahead will involve these new adversaries in some way, so a bit of pre-emptive tactical data analysis would be very useful. They are many, but I am a Mastermind, and am never alone. It is the matter of moments to access the powerplant of my Hammerhead, and direct nanomachines to reconstruct my retinue. The MG-Mek, the Laserbot, and....I think...yes...the BlastMek. I do not miss a gear change as the process completes, and pressing the accelerator hard, I redirect the car's power to weapons, and we four riders on the road of the apocalypse charge downhill to destruction - optimally, theirs.
I even fire quick bursts of the roof-mounted chaingun turret into the air as we roar towards the fight in progress. It isn't a terribly efficient use of ammunition, but then again, even Meks have our guilty pleasures...